Thanks for responding to my essay. I like that D&C 9:8-9 points out that revelation is much more than a feel good experience. It is clear that revelation is a heart and mind experience. I feel that same emotional, warm comforting feeling many times in my life when I am not praying or seeking guidance. To me, it is evidence of God’s love for me and that he knows I’m here.

I can relate to your chick flick experience. Carol and I have many favorites that make us feel good and can bring the tears. I’m so glad that we have emotions. It’s part of what makes life enjoyable. It would be awful to not be able to feel and express those feelings with passion or with sentiment. It’s what makes us mortal and human – the chemical reactions in our bodies.

I’ve always separated feelings from emotions. I consider feelings to be inward sensations. In my simple mind, I like to think that I can sense or feel what others are experiencing in certain situations. For example, I can sense when my wife is moved by a piece of music. I can tell when she is feeling a certain way because I begin to feel it to. I think its spirit speaking to spirit.

Emotions for me are the outward expression of those feelings through our bodies. Flowing tears is one example of that outward expression. Unfortunately, many people within the church have confused emotion with spiritual feeling. We have all seen this in the bearing of testimonies. I’m not against some tears in testimony meetings, but the tears and the emotion are not revelation.

Revelation comes to both our heart and mind. What I was trying to describe in the experience I related in this essay was the receipt of revelation. I both felt the warm, comforting and peaceful feeling, but I was also seeing things in my mind’s eye and hearing myself saying things at some future time. So for me that qualified as revelation – it came both to my heart and to my mind.

I can understand your conundrum about the Primary President. I have experienced something similar. I was the Bishopric counselor over the Primary. The Primary President came to me with a name of an individual that she felt strongly impressed should serve as a Primary Teacher. In this case, the Relief Society presented her name to the Bishop at the same time to teach there.

The wise bishop turned to these two sisters in ward council where it came up and said, “Isn’t it wonderful that the Lord inspired both of you that this sister needs something to help her right now? I see that as evidence that the Lord is aware of each of us and inspires others to reach out to us in our needs. Will you both continue to be her friend and involve her however you can?”

And then, acting in capacity as the presiding High Priest and exercising the keys that the Lord bestowed upon him, he informed these two good ward leaders that this sister was not quite yet ready for a calling. The confirmation of the spirit belonged to the one who held the keys – in this case the bishop. Serving as an auxiliary president brings inspiration but no keys to issue callings.

That’s why the Lord placed Bishops and Stake Presidents in our local units – to understand what is best for those saints in his flock. Let me be clear and direct – a Primary President and a Relief Society President can receive inspiration for what might be a good calling for someone but they cannot receive revelation as to what is best for that individual. That belongs to the Shepherd.

Don’t throw out the memories and good feelings of your previous revelatory experiences. I have no doubt that you have experienced them. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. You cannot have one without the other. I can count the powerful revelatory experiences like the one I described above on one hand. However, I receive revelation for my own life almost every day.

It is not always accompanied by that strong warm burning feeling, but then I often feel that warm feeling at various times in my day without revelation as well. It is when the two of them come together that I am more certain that what I am thinking or feeling is pleasing to the Lord. It’s taken me over fifty years to fine tune this ability to understand when I am in tune with the Lord.

Your thoughts?

Thanks for sharing that experience. I too have had those same feelings while on my mission, and during other times at church during meetings, while paying during Bishopric meetings, etc. But the problem is I have also felt those same feelings during very non-religious experiences.

Growing up, I was always taught that when I felt that “burning in my bosom” it was God and/or the Holy Ghost speaking to me. For me it is an intense welling up of feelings, usually culminating by the shedding of some tears. Like you it is very tangible. I felt this while teaching people on my mission. I’ve felt this while praying. But I’ve also felt this while watching a “chick flick” with my wife. When the girl gets her guy in the end, I feel the “exact” same feelings that I feel while praying. Is this God telling me that “The Notebook” is the one true movie? Of course not.

This happens all the time to me watching TV programs. It also happens while watching a church movie in the visitors center at the temple. After the movies in the temple visitors center, the missionaries will tell the audience that what they felt was the Holy Ghost testifying of the truthfulness of what they saw. Really? Hollywood is able to do the same thing with their movies, yet nobody believes Avatar is real. Why is the feeling I feel in church from God, and the same feeling I feel on TV not?

I don’t have an answer for why this happens, but I’ve come to question all my previous “revelations”. I also can make more sense of people who think they have revelations confirmed by God, only to be very wrong. I once had Primary President come to me with a name she wanted to call as a teacher. She said she had prayed about this name, and had a “Confirmation of the Spirit” that this person should be called to teach. I had knowledge that this person could in fact not hold a calling due to personal problems at the time. So what did this Primary President feel, and from where did those feeling come?

Closet Doubter

Thank you for sharing this special experience. Your experience inspires and strengthens my own testimony. I feel blessed to have been able to hear you recount this experience.

I hope that by sharing this, you also strengthened your own testimony and were revisited by a portion of the Spirit that you felt on that day.

Thanks again for sharing this very special and personal experience with us!

Another significant thing about Rexburg is the location of the temple. I was amazed when I discovered that the site of the temple was the very spot where I used to go and pray in a vacant little field near my dorm. I poured my heart out there many times.

Jeremy: You are right on. From page 99 of Preach my Gospel: “Revelation and spiritual experiences are sacred. They should be kept private and discussed only in appropriate situations.

President Packer counseled: “I have learned that strong, impressive spiritual experiences do not come to us very frequently. And when they do, they are generally for our own edification, instruction, or correction.

“I have come to believe also that it is not wise to continually talk of unusual spiritual experiences. They are to be guarded with care and shared only when the Spirit itself prompts you to use them to the blessing of others.”

I thought long and hard about posting this very sacred and personal spiritual experience to a very public forum like my blog. I have rarely shared this story with anyone beyond my own family. I felt impressed last week that it was appropriate.

I know I opened myself up to ridicule and criticism for sharing this but as I wrote it in response to a private inquiry, I felt strongly that others could benefit from reading about my experience. I have come to believe that it is actually not so unusual.

On the few occasions when I have shared this in a private setting like a Bishopric meeting, I have been impressed that many others have experienced something similar. The process of receiving revelation has many commonalities for all of us.

I agree with your point about having pure intelligence flow into your body. I think we are actually describing the same thing when I wrote about seeing myself teaching and speaking in future gospel-oriented settings. That was pure intelligence to me.

It just happened to be accompanied by a glorious feeling of warmth, peace, comfort, love and acceptance from at least one member of the Godhead that answered my prayer that evening. The revelation that flowed was more than I was expecting.

Jared: Thanks for receiving my testimony. It is my hope and prayer that by sharing this experience, others will have some evidence from at least this witness that the Lord can and does comfort his children through the burning of the bosom.

I know I am not alone in my assertion that the burning of the bosom is real. I have heard similar testimonies to mine shared on many occasions throughout my life. It has brought great comfort to my soul and reminds me that I am not alone in my journey.

Good to see you in the bloggernacle. I look forward to a day when it will be in person.

A testimony is personal and when the Lord helps us share it, it becomes a power that enters into the minds and hearts of those who are able to receive it. I receive it, Tim! Thanks!

I’m not a “burning in the bosom” person. Instead, I relate to the Prophet’s description or revelation as having pure intelligence flow into your body. I have felt that on numerous occasions during study sessions and at Church. Each time fills me with exhilaration beyond what any temporal high could even give me.

Nice to hear from you again.

It wasn’t until I was asked to serve a mission by my bishop that I began on a discovery journey that led me to learn that I indeed had a testimony of the gospel because at every instance when I bore a divine witness that the Prophet Joseph Smith was indeed called of God and did in reality see and speak with God, the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, I felt the igniting of my spirit–that spark that warmed and illuminated me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.

I have not often experienced that since my mission only because I have removed myself from God because of sin and lack of participation. Not that I have dropped out of membership in the church, but that I don’t perform my own personal worship rituals as much as I would like. When I do, I know the feelings come back.

Thanks for sharing.
C. Malone